Health and social care premises shortlisted for award

Phoenix Centre, Heywood

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The partnership behind the delivery of modern, state-of-the-art health and social care premises across the borough of Rochdale has been shortlisted for the prestigious LIFT Area of the Year Award 2010.

Established in 2007, Bolton, Rochdale and Heywood & Middleton Local Improvement Finance Trust (BRAHM LIFT) has developed an impressive five operational schemes, four of which are in the borough including Alkrington Health Centre, Nye Bevan House, The Phoenix Centre and The Croft Shifa Health Centre.

Dr Julie Higgins, Chief Executive of NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, commented on the national acclaim: “We are delighted to hear that BRAHM LIFT has been shortlisted for this award. The partnership has been instrumental in supporting us to develop all our health and social care premises across the borough, allowing us to provide high quality services and state-of-the-art buildings that are now more readily accessible to patients.”

The award will be made to the LIFT area that has demonstrated the benefit of joint working in public and private partnership in order to achieve the best overall outcome across each of the award categories, these include; design, innovation, sustainability, partnering, transforming service delivery, community engagement and user experience.

John Percival, Special Projects Manager at Rochdale Borough Council added: “The LiftCo has been established for only three years, and in that time we have had four new centres built in the borough. One of these is a Joint Service Centre where the council and the NHS work alongside each other, jointly improving services for the benefit of the local community. The benefit to the borough in terms of regeneration is significant. None of this could have been achieved without the very close and effective partnership between the Eric Wright Group, NHS HMR and ourselves. The result is significantly improved services, regeneration of key sites and an enduring partnership which will continue to bring benefits to local people for years to come.”

At a time when it is extremely important to deliver a quality service and demonstrate real value for money it is encouraging that BRAHM LIFT is considered to be one of the highest achieving LIFT partnerships in the country. In addition to the Area of the Year award, BRAHM has also been shortlisted in the following award categories: 

• Best Design Award - Breightmet Health Centre, Bolton 
• Best Supply Chain Partner - Eric Wright Group with BRAHM LIFT 
• Best Advisor Award - Pinsent Mason (Solicitors) for advising BRAHM LIFT Ltd for “Bolton One”

Nightingale Associates, architects on all BRHAM LIFT schemes, has also been shortlisted in the Best Supply Chain Partner category for their work on a range of LIFT projects, including those in the borough.

Richard Turpin from the Eric Wright Group said: “We are extremely pleased that BRAHM LIFT achievements are recognised in this short listing for the Area of the Year award. Whilst Eric Wright Group have also been shortlisted for the Best Supply Chain award the true strength of BRAHM LIFT rests in a shared, long-term partnering ethos.”

The award ceremony will take place on Thursday 8 July where the winners will be announced.